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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY STRATEGY : A roadmap to poverty reduction in Bangladesh

Shamsul Alam

Social security is important not only for addressing vulnerability, but also
for solving the problems of entrenched poverty and reducing marginalisation.
The importance of a well-designed social security system has increasingly been
accepted within national and global policy circles for addressing triple
problems of poverty, vulnerability and marginalisation. Bangladesh's latest
initiative in social security—National Social Security Strategy (NSSS)—takes up
the challenges through an inclusive, focused, and coordinated approach to
poverty reduction.

The provision of social security is embedded in Article 15 (d) of our
Constitution as citizens' right to social security. In line of the
constitutional obligations, the main vision of the newly launched social
security strategy is to “build inclusive social security system for all
deserving Bangladeshis that effectively tackles and prevents poverty and
inequality and contributes to broader human development, employment and
economic growth.” To that end, the goal of the NSSS is to “reform the national
social security system by ensuring more efficient and effective use of
resources, strengthened delivery systems and progress towards a more inclusive
form of social security that effectively tackles life cycle risks, and
prioritises the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.”

Social protection is embedded within the Seventh Five Year Plan. The plan
outlines the implementation of the National Social Security Strategy as a core
goal in building the foundations of a progressive and inclusive social security
system. The priority challenges planned to be addressed over the next five
years amongst others include (a) expanding coverage of core social security
schemes for the extreme/hardcore poor and most vulnerable people of the
society, focusing on mother and child, youth, working age, the elderly and
people with disabilities; (b) ensuring that the most vulnerable women are
provided with income security and greater opportunities to engage in the labour
market, in particular when they enter motherhood; and (c) expanding coverage to
the residents of urban areas and to socially excluded people.

Human beings face shocks and challenges at different stages of their life
cycle and the poor and vulnerable segments of the population are the worst
victims. If not addressed on time, some of the underlying risks could have
life-lasting negative impacts. While coverage of safety net beneficiaries has
increased over the last decade, the targeting performance suggests need for
improvement and streamlining.

Many of the existing social safety net programmes of Bangladesh fit in with
the life cycle framework, but concerns of targeting have been paramount. Much
of the social security budget is spent on government pensions and food
distribution schemes. Programmes to mitigate pregnancy and early childhood
risks and disability are remarkably limited in both beneficiary coverage as
well as financing. The average benefit of the old age allowance programme is
very low and lots of poor, old people are excluded. The disability benefits and
vulnerable women's programmes similarly suffer from low coverage and low
average benefits since most current programmes are small and the average
benefit per individual is low.

The successful implementation of the NSSS will provide a strong basis for
Bangladesh to extend proper social security to its poor and vulnerable
populations. It recognises the differences in risks at different stages of the
life cycle and provides support to various demographic groups. The proposed
reforms too are to be instrumental in eliminating leakages, improving
targeting, increasing the average value of the transfers, lowering the risks faced
by the poor and the vulnerable, reducing poverty and income inequality.

The reforms through the NSSS seek to consolidate the multitude of often
duplicative programmes into core programmes based on the life cycle, enhance
beneficiary coverage so that the programmes are by design inclusive of the poor
and the vulnerable, with special emphasis on the extreme poor, and increase the
average programme benefits to make a meaningful impact on the recipients. The
NSSS has placed greater emphasis on strengthening the administration and
management of Social Security schemes. This increases the efficiency and
effectiveness of schemes while also reducing fiduciary risk. Improvements have
generally focused on three main areas: professionalising staff and institutions;
improving management information systems; and, the delivery of transfers to
recipients.

The government understands that improvements in the administrative
arrangements for the NSSS will be critical to its success. Administrative
problems and weak governance in the implementation of SSPs are interlinked.
Establishing good institutional arrangements for administering well-designed
SSPs will also help lower leakages. The review of past experience suggests that
there are a number of areas that need to be reformed.

The key priorities, accordingly, are to address a vastly simplified
institutional arrangement that allows proper planning, implementation, and
M&E of the NSSS. The professionalisation of staff is also important to
create a group of public servant experts in the delivery of Social Security
schemes both at national and local levels. The effectiveness in identifying
recipients for social security schemes also require (a) upgrading the MISs so
that they are able to underpin the effective and efficient delivery of
transfers and promote cross-governmental coordination and monitoring of
performance; (b) strengthening payment mechanisms to minimise leakage and to
use the social security system to promote financial inclusion, in particular
among the poor; and (c) establishing an effective grievance redress system so
that all citizens have recourse to appeal decisions on selection and can notify
the competent authorities about instances of misconduct and failures in the
delivery of the promised benefit.

The government will continue deepening the partnership with different
stakeholders in the area of delivering social security services based on the
NSSS. NGOs can be helpful in piloting innovative ideas for possible scaling up,
identification of potential beneficiaries, especially those that are hard to
reach because they live in remote areas or belong to marginalised or vulnerable
social groups of the population, and helping redress grievances and disputes
relating to the implementation of the NSSS.

Bangladesh now has a roadmap to a social security system that is inclusive,
focused, as well as coordinated enough to achieve the objectives and get the
maximum value of public money. The targeted, focused and coordinated approach
will ensure that we do not embark on a fragmented implementation, with both
duplication and under-coverage resulting from improper targeting, leakages and
lack of inter-ministerial coordination. With a comprehensive strategy, our task
in the future is to make sure that the roadmap is followed for further
reduction in poverty.

The writer is Member (Senior Secretary), General Economics
Division, Planning Commission. He can be reached at sabau47@yahoo.com.